Ontario premier Doug Ford returned to Queen’s Park with a third straight majority government after a February 27 snap election. Less than half the number of eligible voters cast a ballot in the election.

JP Hornick, President of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, said the premier did not get “a strong mandate from the people of Ontario.” Hornick added: “Democracy isn’t just about elections. […] It’s about building our power together to make things better. It’s about fighting back against bad decisions and holding governments accountable.”

Nigmendra Narain, President of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations, said recent years have seen “a provincial funding model that doesn’t consider the long-term benefits of university education to Ontarians and Ontario’s economy.”

Meanwhile, CUPE Ontario, the union that represents 290,000 public sector workers, has vowed to fight back and resist “the Conservatives’ appalling anti-worker agenda.”

The Progressive Conservatives’ victory comes amid chronic underfunding of post-secondary education, with Ontario’s universities and colleges having the lowest level of funding per student in Canada.